A’s beat Texas on Khris Davis’ slam in ninth

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Oakland Athletics' Coco Crisp (4) bunts against the Texas Rangers in the seventh inning of their MLB game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien (10) could not get the force in time as Texas Rangers' Ian Desmond (20) is safe at second in the first inning of their MLB game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

OAKLAND — Khris Davis is in one of those zones players crave, the sure knowledge that they are The Man.

With the A’s down by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, Davis walked to the plate against Rangers’ closer Sean Tolleson without a doubt this was his time to shine.

“I knew in the back of my head I was going to get the job done going up to the plate,” Davis said. Moments later he took a mighty hack at a 2-2 pitch from Tolleson and completed a three-homer night with a grand slam, good for an 8-5 A’s win. “It was an amazing feeling.”

The homer was Davis’ sixth in his past 13 games and his 11th of the season. He’s on a roll, and he knows it. The three homers in a game are a career-high and his six RBIs match his best effort. The A’s are on a roll, too, with four wins in their past five games to move to 18-22 while knocking the Rangers out of a first-place tie in the American League West.

The Davis Demolition Derby came on a night when the A’s had bad news early. Mark Canha is out for the year and will have surgery on his left hip next Tuesday.

Davis eased some of that sting and got the crowd of 12,718 semi-delirious in the process.

“If I’m ready to hit, I think I can hit anybody,” Davis said.

His first two homers were both solo shots off undefeated Rangers’ starter Cole Hamels. “I felt ready.”

He’s not alone. Danny Valencia, who had a three-homer game just two days earlier in Tampa Bay, homered and delivered a tiebreaking single in this one and is as hot as anybody.

Oakland closer Ryan Madson stood to be the goat after giving up a two-out, two-run homer to Texas’ Ian Desmond in the ninth, but as Madson explained later, the end result meant “it’s all good.

“I created a career moment for somebody else,” Madson said with a smile. He’d been 11 for 11 in saves before Desmond’s homer. Instead of the save, Madson wound up with his second win. “An outcome like that, that was so fun to watch.”

Stephen Vogt led off the ninth with a 40-foot bleeder down the first base line. While Vogt was blasting toward the bag, Tolleson raced off the mound to field the ball. When he got it, he threw toward the bag, only to hit Vogt.

“I kept telling myself ‘Stay in the line,’ ” Vogt said, knowing that to go outside would make him an automatic out. He was successful, and moments later he was on third base when Coco Crisp doubled.

It wasn’t as easy as all that. Billy Burns popped out, then Tolleson intentionally walked Josh Reddick to load the bases even though that meant bringing up Valencia and then Davis, the men who’d been driving all the A’s runs. Jeff Bannister, the Rangers’ manager, was playing the percentages that a slider from Tolleson would be converted into a double play.

Instead, Valencia popped out. Then Davis delivered his crushing blow.

“If you are a baseball fan, I don’t know that you get a better game to watch,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Certainly if you are an A’s fan, it turned out the way you wanted it to. We would have liked to have ended a little bit earlier.

“But the way the dramatics go, it seemed like something dramatic was going to happen. It’s a big night.”

A year ago at this time, the A’s didn’t have the kind of power to battle the best left-handed pitchers. Now they do. Hamels had allowed only six homers in seven starts before Valencia and Davis got him three times in 6 2/3 innings.

“That’s what we’re here to do,” Davis said of the Valencia-Davis partnership. “It’s all about putting pressure on that defense. That last inning, that’s a tough spot for them to be in, with the bases loaded.”

Canha, on the D.L. since May 9, collected a second opinion on his hip injury. He was leaning toward surgery before getting the advice from Dr. Marc Phillippon that surgery was the best course of action. Dr. Phillippon will perform the surgery in Vail, Colorado, on Tuesday, and Canha will need a full six months to recover. “It’s not such a bad day in my world,” he said. “I’m optimistic.”

While his teammates were taking batting practice, A’s right-handed starter Henderson Alvarez was having an MRI on his right shoulder. He felt discomfort at the end of his final injury rehabilitation start Saturday for Triple-A Nashville. Melvin was optimistic Alvarez’s move into the A’s rotation wasn’t too far off, saying the consensus was that the pain “was just a strain.” The club will know more Wednesday.

Max Muncy and Hahn were called up Tuesday, Hahn to join the rotation and start Tuesday and Muncy to fill many of the same roles that Canha had.

To make room for Hahn and Muncy, the A’s optioned pitcher Eric Surkamp to Nashville and put catcher Josh Phegley on the disabled list retroactive to May 10.

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